When Bruce Fenton gets a good vibe about a job applicant, he
doesn't dangle a job offer right away. He wants the applicant
to meet a few of the company's employees first. "People
act differently with different people," says Fenton, founder
and president of Atlantic Financial Inc., an investment firm in
Westboro, Massachusetts, with annual sales topping $1 million.
"If someone is abrasive to the junior people, we're not
interested. They wouldn't be a fit."

Fenton, 32, uses a technique called the peer-to-peer interview,
where applicants meet one-on-one with rank-and-file employees to
ask questions about the job and the company. The employee sizes up
the applicant and tells the boss what he or she thinks.

IBM and Motorola are just a few big companies that use
peer-to-peer interviewing. This type of interview is "becoming
more common, especially in team-based operations where the team has
some autonomy to control its output," says Ron Selewach,
founder and CEO of the Human Resource Management Center, an HR development
company in Tampa, Florida, which provides automated
candidate-screening technology. "If done right, it works
well."

Risks and Benefits

Peer-to-peer interviewing can benefit small companies.
Applicants learn more about the company culture, while employees
help select their future co-workers, which can be good for morale
and productivity. Management can get more insight into an
applicant's personality, since applicants are likely to let
their guard down with peers.

"In a small organization, you're going to spend a lot
of time together," says Michael Harris, a management professor
at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, who has participated in
peer-to-peer interviews. "It becomes even more important for
the entrepreneur to share some of the [hiring] responsibility with
the other employees."

But there are risks, as Fenton learned a few years ago when he
let an unhappy employee spend time with an applicant the company
hoped to hire. When Fenton made a job offer, the once-interested
applicant turned him down.

Employees bent on turning off talented applicants they see as
potential competition for promotions pose another risk.
"You've got to make sure it's the right employee
[doing the interviews]," Fenton says. Look for employees who
have great people skills, are upbeat about the company, and
understand where it's heading.

Choose employees who can offer diverse opinions, too. "Pick
people who are enthusiastic and articulate," Selewach says.
"Remember, it's a two-way street in an interview. The
candidate is also evaluating the company."

Before you turn employees loose, be sure they know what they
shouldn't ask during a peer-to-peer interview. Employees
untrained in HR might ask whether applicants have children, how old
they are and if they're married-all illegal questions under
hiring laws. Go over a list of questions to avoid in an interview
situation. The goal is for employees to make sure their questions
are job-related, Harris says.

But what if an applicant starts asking touchy questions about
salaries or management? Uncomfortable employees might say the first
thing that comes to mind, leaving applicants with conflicting
answers. Salary talk alone "can open up a can of worms,"
says James Wright, partner with Bridge
Technical Solutions, a technical staffing firm in East
Greenwich, Rhode Island. "[Say to employees], 'These are
the areas we don't want you to talk to this person
about.'" At the very least, employees should know to
expect touchy questions from applicants.

First Impressions

You'll need to get employees' feedback regarding job
applicants. Harris suggests having employees fill out a form that
scores job candidates on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of
work-related knowledge, skills and experience. This way,
everyone's not going only on a gut reaction. "Base your
discussion on the key dimensions of the job," Harris says.

What if management is gung-ho on an applicant but employees
aren't as impressed, or vice versa? Handle this situation in a
ham-handed way, and employees will think their input doesn't
matter. Fenton prefers to keep it to a casual "Whaddya
think?" when he asks for feedback, and he takes it seriously
when employees have significant reservations about a candidate.
"First impressions are often correct," he says.

Make sure employees understand that their feedback will be
valued, but that management will have the final say. After all, you
could hire applicants-or not hire them-for reasons employees may
not fully understand.

Fenton thinks peer-to-peer interviewing has decreased his
company's turnover in a high-turnover industry. "It's
a great idea," he says. "I can't picture not doing
it."

Chris Penttila

Chris Penttila is a Washington, DC-based freelance journalist who covers workplace issues on her blog, Workplacediva.blogspot.com.